


Let's You and I Walk to the End of the World

by AntagonizedPenguin



Series: How Best to Use a Sword [13]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguously Unrequited Love, Inevitability, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7577467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntagonizedPenguin/pseuds/AntagonizedPenguin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, all they can do is keep moving, until they reach the tower on the hill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's You and I Walk to the End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> When I read fantasy (and other genres, but this is the one I write in) I always like the ambiguously relevant narrative asides that don't have an immediately apparent impact on the main story. So with that said, enjoy this.

“Do you think we’re going to die?”

Aaron broke his study of the tower only for a moment to glance at his friend. “Yes. Humans all die eventually, Seth.” 

Seth scowled at him. In his hammered iron helm and halfplate, he looked like a man, rather than a boy. “I know that. I meant do you think we’re going to die now, because of this.” 

“I know what you meant.” Aaron looked away from Seth and back to the tower. Even in the rising sunlight it was glowing on top of its hill, and the magical light was so strong that even Seth was able to make it out. It looked to Aaron as if someone had turned the Web into a building. The scar on his forehead itched. “Yeah, I do.” 

“Okay.” Was all Seth said, though his face hardened until it might have been hammered from iron as well. Aaron remembered when he’d used to smile. When both of them had used to smile. When they’d been happy, and whole and not covered in scars, and hadn’t killed and watched friends die, when they had spent the nights giggling and telling each other stories instead of huddled in individual nightmares. 

He remembered when they’d had options. Other paths that weren’t this one. 

“You should go back.” Seth said, the resignation in his voice was already obvious. He knew this was futile, but Aaron supposed honour bound him to try anyway. It was one of the things he liked about Seth. “There’s no reason for both of us to throw away…”

“I’m not going back.” Not anymore. 

“You should, though.” Seth insisted. “They need you. Nobody’s going to miss one sword, but they need all the magic they can get.”

“Nobody’s going to miss one spider either.” Aaron promised, and he felt the Web vibrate around him and started moving down the hill they were on, towards the tower. And even if that weren’t true, he thought, the threads brushing him as he walked, ignoring his attempts to banish them, they would have had to get used to having him gone soon anyway. 

The Web was dangerous. Even those who it didn’t kill right away were at risk—and the more one used it, the more that was true.

Aaron had been using it a lot lately. 

“That’s not true.” Seth said quietly. Everything around them felt empty. There wasn’t even any wind, and there were no clouds in the sky. The grass was alive but yellowed. 

“And it’s not true that nobody’s going to miss you.” Aaron snapped. “But this is the decision we made.” The only decision they could have made after Thunderfall. Aaron could still hear the screams cascading through his head. _Help us, help us, die, burn, die, help me._

“Yeah.” Seth sighed, fiddling with the bag of stones on his belt. “I, um. I told Rachel I’d marry her when we came back.” 

Aaron had known that. He looked at the tower again. Even from here he could feel the power inherent in it. 

“I think I knew I was lying to her. I think she did too. She was really angry.” 

“She wanted to come.” Aaron said. “I’m guessing a lot of people did. We aren’t the only ones who are finished with it.” 

Seth nodded. “But we are the only ones who…” He didn’t finish the thought, and Aaron didn’t ask. They descended the rest of the hill in silence and started on a stretch of flat ground. After a while Seth spoke again. “I don’t remember if I ever told you this, but where I’m from, every few years a group of people would suit up in their second-best armour and weapons and go off on an expedition to kill the Valley King.” 

Aaron glanced Seth’s way again. “Their second-best?” 

“Old people.” Seth said. “Sick people.”

“People who aren’t planning to come back.” Aaron was silent for another long time. There were occasional tracks, droppings or signs of other animal life, but they never actually saw any. “That’s not what this is.” 

“So you think we’re going to win?” 

“I didn’t say that.” 

“If we know we’re going to die and we know we’re not going to win, how is it anything but giving up?” 

“We’re not giving up.” Aaron said fiercely. “We’re sending them a message. Gods and humans both. We’re not going to let this happen anymore. If you hurt us we’ll fight you. We don’t belong to you. We’re not yours to throw away. We’re not afraid of you.” 

“We are, though.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Aaron said, shaking his head. He’d never heard Seth admit to any sort of fear until a month ago. “We’re not giving up. We’re declaring war.” 

Seth looked at him for a long minute and then sighed, returning his focus to the tower. “It’s a long-ass way away still.”

“Yeah, about twenty miles, I think.” It was hard to say because the power of the tower played tricks with Aaron’s perception. 

“We’ll have to camp one more time.” 

“Yeah.”

“We don’t have a lot of supplies left.” Seth snorted. “I guess that doesn’t matter.” 

“Probably not.” Aaron was tired even if they’d just started walking for the day, but he staved it off. Tomorrow he wouldn’t be tired any more. 

“Hey…” Seth was glaring at the tower now, and fiddling with that bag again. “Aaron?” 

“What?” 

“I was in love with Amy.” 

Aaron didn’t answer for a minute, thinking about a smile and a laugh, and a fierce girl who’d died in a betrayal so deep it had scarred the psyche of the human race. “I know.” He said after a while, as they started to ascend another hill. His best friend and his sister, it had been hard not to know. 

“I never told her. I wish I had.” Seth kicked a loose stone on the decaying road. “I know she would have just laughed at me. But I still wish I had.” 

“She knew.” Aaron muttered, feeling bad and wishing he hadn’t known that. 

“I know, but I should have said it.” 

Aaron nodded. A while ago he might have cried, but he didn’t have any tears left. He was just empty, now. Both of them were. He sighed. “Seth?” 

“Yeah?”

“I love you.” Aaron said, and the ease with which the words came out almost made him laugh. So long he’d agonized over that, and it was just a stupid sentence. Seth turned his head to look at Aaron. “I’ve loved you for a long time, since you defended me after the Hammer.”

Seth just watched him for such a long time. Aaron watched the tower in the distance. “You never said anything.”

“I didn’t want to push you away. You’re too important to me.” But now there was no point. Why keep a barrier up between them after all this?

“Why now?”

“Because you never told Amy.” Aaron said, and was surprised when he choked just a little. 

Seth turned away and they kept walking in silence for a long while. Eventually he reached out and took Aaron’s hand, squeezed it quickly and then let go. “You’re buzzing. More than usual.” 

“Yeah. I pulled too strongly on the Web at Thunderfall, and again when we fought with the Hound Company.” He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to say anything else. They’d both seen this happen to enough people. 

“Okay.” Seth said, and the depth Aaron heard in that surprised him. “I wouldn’t have pushed you away.” 

Aaron just shrugged. “I was too scared.” Of Seth, of everything. 

Seth shook his head. “You were never a coward. I know I used to say you were. But you weren’t. I wish you’d told me.” 

Aaron looked down at the dry ground. “Yeah. Me too. But it’s too late now.” 

“Yeah.” 

Ahead of them, the tower continued to glow like the beacon it was. In a silence that hung oppressively around them, around everything, they walked together towards it.


End file.
